Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/115

 stone was able to transform a million times its weight of base metal into gold. The above-named alchemists are also unanimous in regarding it as a universal medicine, and "it was no unusual assertion that adepts, the fortunate possessors of the panacea, had been able to prolong their lives to 400 years and more."—Meyer. The readers of Rasárnava and the other Tantras will not fail to find that there is much in common between the Hindu alchemists and their European confrères.

The knowledge in practical chemistry, prevalent in India in the 12th and 13th centuries A. D., and perhaps earlier, such as we are enabled to glean from Rasárnava and similar works, is distinctly in advance of that of the same period in Europe. It was known for instance that blue vitriol and a variety of the pyrites (see p. 70) yielded an essence in the shape of copper; and calamine, zinc. The colour of flames as a